Give a gift with staying power this season

Shown above is a hemlock adorned with lichen, on a bank of the St. Mary’s River protected by the Nova Scotia Nature Trust. (ZACK METCALFE)

The season of giving is fast upon us and for many Canadians, that means writing cheques for which we expect no return, at least not directly. These investments pay off in the form of a stranger’s full stomach, a hospital’s purchase of life-saving equipment or the fulfilment of culture and art. But there’s one category which suffers in this grand act of charity, the one which, ironically, results in our longest-lived outcomes.

Taken all together, donations to environmental charities account for roughly two per cent of charitable giving in Canada. Remove animal rescue organizations like the Hope For Wildlife from that statistic and the number drops to less than 0.1 per cent, this meager sum buying the research and conservation on which our wilderness subsists. It’s an unfortunate pitfall.

Not for a moment would I suggest other charities aren’t important — the QEII Foundation’s indispensable support of our regional hospitals is heartening — but environmental charities are equally vital, while unequally supported.

Take a personal favourite of mine — the Nova Scotia Nature Trust. They and other charities employing the nature trust model have the sole mandate of acquiring ecologically significant lands and protecting them, now and forever, from the unsavoury aspects of civilization. On their land there is no forestry, no mining, no development and no hunting, like charity parks, open to anyone with gentle footsteps. Here’s but one environmental charity whose products — the natural heritage of an abused province — will outlive us all.

Consider the Bluenose Coastal Action Foundation, active on our Southern Shore in part to preserve the Atlantic whitefish, a critically endangered cousin of the Atlantic salmon whose interests they defend. Their efforts on behalf of this species, from hands-on conservation to governmental co-ordination, might result in the survival of a species otherwise doomed to disappear. That’s a powerful outcome for a relatively humble investment.

Southwestern Nova Scotia is home to world class biodiversity for which it’s been extensively recognized, if only somewhat protected. At its core works the Mersey Tobeatic Research Institute (MTRI), dedicated to uncovering the secrets of these incredible ecosystems and guiding conservation actions within government and without. Their work is putting us on the map, and revealing the natural treasures we might otherwise have undervalued into oblivion.

These are just local examples of course, each dwarfed by national and international counterparts, and all in desperate need of our support and charity. Consider the environmental issues which speak to you most, track down the appropriate charity and be sure they’re on your list when we make that collective investment this season. Given the scale of their returns, this is money well spent.

Zack Metcalfe is a freelance environmental journalist, an author, and writer of the Endangered Perspective. He operates out of Halifax, Nova Scotia.